Some people may have sold their own soul to get a Crysis MP Beta Key, and others may have registered to fileplanet for 7 bucks... Nonetheless, the Crysis Multiplayer Beta was an extravagant release event. With such a good review, despite its many glitches, fans knew that they could count on Crytek for some solid gaming with the official multiplayer release.

Crysis introduces an mp that, though is very Battlefield-esque, brings many new features to the table. This mode is called Power Struggle. First, as usual, you select whether you want to play on the North Korean or American team. (Remember, this isn't a Team Deathmatch, and I've come to find that strategy varies GREATLY between the two teams on a map) From there you'll select a spawning position, most likely your TEAM BASE, or HQ if you prefer, if the game has just begun. And if it has, you'll want to make sure you have some time to play, because each round is 1 HOUR. (It flies by!)

Scattered along the map are several icons, that may seem hard to find at first, but by clicking O on the keyboard, your HUD will display the direction and distances to each of these places represented by different icons. This is extremely useful, as the largeview map is both hard to interpret and STAGNANT, atleast by default, and this can make finding your way around difficult for us compass styled map users. Obviously, each icon is a capturable flag of some sort.

North Korean/USA Flag - Places you don't want to go, out of cloak, unless your running in with a nuke tank.. lol

The Flag - this is a bunker, capture it simply to gain a spawn point... you can also purchase weapons at these, as in any factory.

The Tank - a war factory, where you may purchase and build many types of land units, from humvees with machineguns, to trucks and tanks, and anti aircraft assault vehicles. This building introduces one of the many unique features of the Crysis MP... Never again will you be teamkilled just before you hop in a tank!

The Helicopter - similar to the war factory, however it builds choppers and vtols! VTOLS ROCK!

The Lightning Bolt and the Atom - These two flags go hand-in-hand. There are 3 lightning bolt flags to each map. That's one feature that will not change. The longer you hold them, and the more of them you hold, you will increase your knowledge in alien and better technology. Once this technology is unlocked, the only place to find and buy it...
The Atom...aka the Prototype Facility, bring you Tactical Nukes, FreezeRays, and Miniguns OH MY!

Each flag has a set value, depending on its worth to your team. You are rewarded in PRESTIGE POINTS, which is the wealth measuring unit in this game. FLAGS aren't worth much, Bolts are worth around the same as the war factories, and you'll get the most PP from the Prototype Facility.

You are also granted income! Another great new feature we haven't seen. You rank up, not over the internet like BF2 and not perpetually as in COD4, but per game...Remember, you are putting an hour into this! Everyone starts on the same grounds, pvt-s have an income of 125, capped, sgts 200 uncapped, so on and so forth.

"SO NOODLES, HOW DO I WIN?!"

This is most unique of all, you win by DECIMATING THE ENEMY BASE WITH NUCLEAR BOMBS! You can win by getting one nuke off on their base and having the time run out... or by completely annihilating it with 3 nukes.. (that may or may not depend on the level, but I'm pretty confident it doesnt vary)

Ties are quite common in this mode of play... so if you're only in it for winning..

INSTANT ACTION

Why this is called instant action, who knows... anyway you slice it, this mode of play just isnt too satisfactory... It takes everything you learned in power struggle, crumples it up into a nice paper ball, throws it in the toilet and flushes...

Still, its really a deathmatch, and you can't expect too much... but spawning with no weapon can really SUCK when someone else as already found the minigun! No buying, nothing to capture, just find guns, pick them up, don't bother to customize them though! cause HEY, you're dead already.

It still feels like CRYSIS, but with an Unreal Tournament style of play.

PROS

New features that completely blow away the competition!

User-friendly Helicopters and Nuclear bombs in an FPS.

The Alien Technology is very fun to run around with, so much, I found myself freezing everything! I love unlimited ammo

Same nano suit as in single-player! Don't have to work your way up to it either, thank god. Thats an idea that was pre-beta.

Best way to kill an hour of time, and not realize it. Plays at a perfect pace.

All Beta Glitches Fixed! +1 For streamlined gameplay.

CONS

No Team Deathmatch!!!!!!!! Sure it plays like a Battlefield game, and running off BF's basic concepts... But why introduce a DEATHMATCH aka Instant Action, if you arent going to introduce TEAM DEATHMATCH... 2 words: Cop Out

Destructable Enviornments?? Crysis has limited DE's to it's Single Player. I completely understood this.... it would be a lagfest on online servers if everything was as destructable as SP... This worked for me, alllll the way up until my tank came to a SURPRISING HALT when it got some damage smashing face first into a STOP SIGN!!!!! Its a tank Crytek? COP OUT!!!!!

Don't worry, the vehicle damage system has not changed! (this should be a pro)

Laggy Servers: No matter what the ping, it seems hard to avoid lag.. Im talking, some serious lag, The events you'll see lag are few and far between, but its enough to really distress the hardcore and casual gamers alike. If you don't play often and you find the one time you do play to be a lagfest, its gonna hurt, if you do play often and your game is being crushed by lag...its going to hurt.